Thursday, May 21, 2009

Scoobee Day : My Friend

Brand : Scoobee DayCompany : Anna Group ( Kitex Garments)

Brand Analysis Count : 400

I am celebrating the 400 th brand analyzed in Marketing Practice with a Kerala brand.Scoobee Day is a pioneer in the branding of school bags in Kerala. The brand is from the Anna Group which is a major player in the textile and Aluminum products in the state.

School bag market is essentially dominated by the unorganized sector. Except for a few national brands like Duckback and Bata, most of the players are local manufacturers.

During the early 2000, Anna group launched the brand Scoobee Day in the school bag segment.Scoobee Day quickly captured the attention of the kids. One of the reason for the quick attention and recall of the brand was the brand's phonetic resemblance to the popular comic character Scooby Doo. During the launch of Scoobee Day, Scooby Doo cartoons were a huge hit among kids .

Scoobee Doo became a quick success through a very careful brand building process. The brand knew the pulse of the target market and the strategies were bang on target.

Scoobee Doo was primarily targeting the young school children in the KG and Pre primary segment. This brand was built on the art of story telling.

School bags are seasonal products . The consumers buy these products during May-June period. Mostly the parents let their kids choose the product since a new bag is definitely a motivation for kids to go to school.

Scoobee Day adopted the strategy of hooking the kids. The brand name itself was a hit and there was something more. The brand told a story. The hero of the story is the brand mascot - a Bee named Scoobee.

Scoobee Day is positioned as a kid's best friend. The brand all through its journey had told stories of how Scoobee Day helped the kids in distress , fighting those monsters who tried to attack the kids.

The brand also had the tagline " Scoobee Day en Changathi " ( in Malayalam) translated to Scoobee Day , My Friend.

The brand told consistent stories which involved kids being chased by dragons and monsters and how Scoobee rescues the kids and tames the demons.

The jingle containing the tagline and the catchy stories of Scoobee helping the kids, made a very strong impression in the mind of the kids. Even my four year old child recites the jingle and is very familiar with the brand.

The brand also ensured that it provided excellent value for money for the consumers. The bags are of very good quality and is very durable. So parents are not complaining for the premium paid for the brand.

To counter the price competition from the local players and cheap chinese imports, Scoobee Day is flooding the market with freebies along with the bag. Free offers include tiffin boxes, water bottles, pencil box etc. This year, the brand is offering pencil box, tiffin box, water bottle and a Scoobee mask.

Scoobee 's success is a classic example of brands built on story telling. The brand had a compelling story and it told the stories consistently . When entering a market dominated by unorganized players, the critical factor for success lies in differentiation. Scoobee Day differentiated itself from the rest through strong brand elements backed by product quality.

Now Kerala market is flooded with branded school bags. But Scoobee had the first mover advantage. The brand had already created huge equity and brand recall among the consumers.